• Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses are licensed to:
  
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• • Perform comprehensive psychiatric evaluations including health histories, psychosocial assessments, physical examinations, and differential diagnosis
  • Prescribe and monitor psychotropic medications
  • Order and interpret laboratory tests and other diagnostic studies
  • Employ biological interventions including nutrition and exercise counseling and the prescription of psychiatric medications
  • Teach effective coping and stress management skills
    
  • Do case management of acute or chronic mental health problems
• Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses also provide:
• 
  
• • Emergency psychiatric services
  • Treatment and management of patient care
  • Short and long term individual, couple, group and family psychotherapy
  • Bereavement and crisis counseling
  • Mental health promotion services such as smoking cessation, weight management
  • Community mental health education in areas such as parenting skills, suicide prevention, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence and rape prevention

Individual needs and goals, along with the method of treatment influence length of care. Therapy can be short term as in crisis intervention or longer for psychiatric illness or personal growth.